The first round of the championship saw the first wins of the year for Marcos Ramirez and Kaito Toba, in Moto3, Eric Granado and Steven Odendaal, in Moto2, and Maximilian Scheib, in Superbike.
The FIM CEV Repsol started today its new season at the Comunitat Valenciana Circuit. In this first round, the Junior Moto3 World Championship had two races. Marcos Ramirez was the winner of the first with an advantage of nearly two seconds over Italian Dennis Foggia. The Andalusian rider also fought for victory in the second race, this time against Japan’s Kaito Toba, who finally took the win thanks to an overtaking in the last lap. After this first round, the overall leader is Ramirez followed by Toba, 14 points behind, and Italian Dalla Porta, at 18.
The Moto2 European Championship also had two races today, with two different winners. In the first, Eric Granado escaped alone to his first victory, although during the second he crashed when he led the race and South African Odendaal, who was second in the previous race, took the first step of the podium and the overall lead. In Superbike, Chilean Maximilian Scheib took advantage of the retirement of the current Champion, Carmelo Morales, when he was leading two laps before the end, to achieve the victory.
The next round of the FIM CEV Repsol will take place next May 7 in France, at the Le Mans circuit, and only the Junior World Championship riders will take part in it. The European Moto2 and Superbike Championship will resume the action in MotorLand Aragon in May 29th.
Marcos Ramirez – Moto3 first race winner
“We pushed hard from the beginning so that the leading group would be reduced to the minimum, but I saw that it was impossible and I decided to be conservative and keep myself on the top places. Some laps after, I took the lead again and I did my best to get a small advantage, that I was able to increase slowly and that allowed me to take the win.”
Kaito Toba – Moto3 second race winner
“Conditions were very tough today and the race was difficult, especially due to the high wind. I decided to hold behind Marcos Ramirez and wait to attack during the last lap, in a corner I knew I could brake very late and I was able to pass him. I’m very happy with today’s win.”
Eric Granado – Moto2 first race winner
“It was quite a tough race, especially at the beginning, because I didn’t have a good start and it was a bit of a mess. The first lap was very complicated because Nagashima fell ahead of me, I had to avoid him and that made me lose some ground from the leaders. But I could slowly recover my pace, which is something we had worked on a lot these last few days and I kept calm. This strategy worked very well and we were able to win in the end. The preseason work had its reward and I want to thank the team.”
Steven Odendaal – Moto2 second race winner
“I’m very happy with this first weekend of the season. This is what the team and I needed to improve our confidence. I’m very happy with my race, although unfortunately Eric Granado just made a mistake and I just had to take advantage of it. I felt very well on the bike with the changes we did for the last race, but there was a lot of wind and the race pace slowed down a bit. I want to thank the team for the job they did.”
Maximilian Scheib – Superbike race winner
“We kept calm at the beginning of the race and I think that being conservative at that time was the key to the race. We completed the first five laps being very cautious, with a soft riding and that benefitted us in the end. I ended with a good and consistent pace that allowed me to take the victory”.
